Last fall I demonstrated a couple of augmented reality (AR) apps to some of my workshop participants at the NESA Leadership Conference in Athens, Greece (yes, we were there during the riots). One of those apps was Aurasma, which allows you to connect digital content with real-world objects. No company-provided cardboard squares to lose, no special paper to print, no what-the-heck-are-these QR codes – just the ordinary objects around you. For example, imagine that you point your iPhone at a picture of a platypus and the Wikipedia platypus page pops up on your screen. Or imagine your students pointing their iPads at a drawing of a DNA helix on the walls of your science classroom and the Crazy Plant Shop genetics game launches. Or imagine a mother at your school’s Parent Night pointing her Android phone at her kid’s 3D clay sculpture and a video pops up of her daughter discussing her art. Or imagine a diabetic student pointing his smartphone at his school lunch and the nutrition menu appears, complete with carbohydrate counts. Or …

I think the ability to connect virtual content with real-world objects holds a lot of learning potential, particularly if we teach kids how to create their own real-world AR objects (and the background content to which those objects link). What ideas do you have for how AR – particularly AR linked to real-world objects – might be used for learning and informational purposes?